BURGLARY WHILE ARMED BRINGS OVER FIVE YEARS IN PRISON

By NCBI
Oct 07, 2011

A 21-year-old Nespelem man will serve over five years in prison for an armed burglary.

The U.S. Attorney's office said Anthony J. Mathias was sentenced today to serve a 66-month prison term for a residential burglary and possession of a firearm during that burglary committed on the Colville Indian Reservation. A jury found Mathias guilty of burglary on June 14, 2011, but could not reach a verdict on the firearm charge. Mathias entered a guilty plea to the firearm charge on July 26, 2011.

According to officials, in the early morning hours of June 26, 2010, two young men pulled up in front of a house in Tribal housing near the Colville Indian Agency campus and started an altercation with another man. The two individuals left the altercation in a truck, but returned a short time later with Mathias and three other men. Mathias then kicked in the door to the house where the other participant in the altercation and witnesses had gathered. Mathias and two other men began yelling at the occupants of the house. Mathias pointed the gun at those occupants of the house and then fired one bullet into the floor. He and the other men then fled.

U.S. Attorney Michael C. Ormsby said, "Gun violence on the Indian reservations has become all too common." He said, "My office is committed to reducing the violence on Indian reservations within this district."